BATON ROUGE — The LSU volleyball team rallied from a 6-0 deficit in the second game to defeat Tennessee, 30-19, 31-29, 30-21, on Friday night in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers evened their Southeastern Conference record at 1-1 with the win and improved to 8-4 overall. Tennessee opened its SEC schedule with the loss to fall to 0-1 and drop to 10-3 on the year.
“We played like the veteran team that we are tonight,” said LSU head coach Fran Flory. “We did not give up when we got behind early in the second game and we fought back for the win. Tennessee has a very young team and we were able to use our experience to our advantage against them.”
LSU was led by Jennifer Hampton with 14 kills and 13 digs. Regan Hood added 13 kills and two blocks, while Lauren Cuyler had 10 kills. Katie Kubena recorded 48 assists and 11 digs, as Jenny Greco had 11 digs for the Tigers.
“Our defense played very well tonight,” said Flory. “We got great play from Jennifer Hampton, who had her hand in nearly every play on the court. Jenny Greco also really stepped up her level of play for us tonight.”
As a team, LSU hit .349 for the match, including a .417 performance in game three. The Tigers out killed Tennessee by 18, 58-40 and recorded 20 more assists, 53-33.
LSU came out and dominated the Lady Vols in the first game. A five-point run by the Tigers opened up an early eight-point lead, 11-3. Tennessee cut the lead to five, but could get no closer as LSU cruised to the 30-19 win.
Tennessee came out and in game two and rattled off six-straight points to start the game. The Tigers finally got on the board and mounted a 10-5 run to cut the Lady Vol lead to one, 11-10.
Tennessee stretched its lead to five points again, 19-14 before LSU rallied to tie the game at 24. The Tigers then scored the next three points to take the 28-25 lead. Just as it seemed LSU would put the match away, the Lady Vols scored four straight to take the 29-28 advantage.
At game point for Tennessee, the Tigers got a kill by Kyra Lancon to tie the game. Another kill by Lancon put the game away, 31-29.
In the third game, LSU dominated like it had during game one. After jumping out to a 7-1 lead, the Tigers opened up a nine-point advantage, 15-6. Tennessee could get no closer than five points the rest of the way as LSU easily took the nine-point win and the match.
The Tigers hit the road for a rematch with UNO on Tuesday in the New Orleans Arena at 7 p.m. LSU defeated the Privateers 3-1 in the Sugar Bowl Classic earlier this season. The match is one of several being held in the arena to help prepare for the NCAA Final Four that will be held in December.